Prevention of acute adhesive intestinal obstruction in the postoperative period: A meta-analysis

Б.К. АЙТБЕКОВ, А.Т. ДЖУМАБЕКОВ, Ernis Alybaev, Berik Dzhumabekov, Ildar Ravisovich Fakhradiyev, Daniyar Sultankulov

2026

Full text Open access: Gold Metadata (CSL-JSON)
DOI 10.29333/ejgm/18345
Data confidence 85 high
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Abstract

Background: Adhesive small bowel obstruction (ASBO) results from postoperative adhesions, causing prolonged hospital stays and surgeries. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of ASBO prevention: surgical, adhesion prevention strategies, and conservative methods. Methods: A meta-analysis evaluating interventions to prevent ASBO post-surgery used data from Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane Library, ProQuest, PubMed, and Google Scholar (2020-2025). RevMan 5.4 and R Studio were used, including 25 relevant studies. Results: Results highlighted differences in reoperation rates (1.4-20.7%), hospital stay lengths (4-23 days), and follow-up durations (≥ 2 years for 55% of studies). Surgical methods (odds ratio [OR] = 12.01) and the use of adhesion barriers (OR = 0.21) mitigated the risk of adhesive intestinal obstruction (AIO). Conservative management (OR = 4.58) was also effective. Conclusions: Surgical methods, the use of barriers to adhesions, and other less invasive interventions help in the prevention of AIO, as well as in the recovery processes.